An Inaugural Dissertation on Medical Topography and Diseases of Warren County, Ky.

James A. Briggs. An Inaugural Dissertation on Medical Topography and Diseases of Warren County, Ky. Thesis (M.D.). University of Nashville, 1851.

By 1850, Tennessee was the fifth largest state by population, and it had but one medical school in operation (Memphis Medical College) . And in the state capitol, a cholera epidemic was raging, which had claimed the life of former president James K. Polk. With this need for trained doctors in mind, the University of Nashville established a medical department in 1850 with its doors to open the following year. That first year, 121 students enrolled, and the school would survive for the next 60 years.

As a graduation requirement, each student submitted a paper on the topic of his choosing, with diseases like cholera, malaria, dysentery, and typhoid among the most popular. Dissertations such as this one made connections between the geography of a region and the diseases endemic to it. There was some logic to this, as climate, hydrology, and land forms are related to health, but the germ theory of disease had yet to be developed.

In 1874, the new Vanderbilt school of medicine began a 20-year relationship with the University of Nashville, where they shared their faculty and facilities. In 1895, Vanderbilt ended this arrangement, and the University of Nashville began a new agreement with the University of Tennessee. When UT’s medical school moved to Memphis in 1911, the University of Nashville’s medical department ceased to exist.